Not that it's of any importance...

...but there was a bit of back and forth yesterday about the last tutorial. I'm posting it because I feel it illustrates what I mean when I say that knitting becomes an obsession.

Phase VII:



Wood's reply to my e-mail with the tutorial:

"Eeeeeeee! I'm so excited! Thanks, and I'll let you know if I have any questions.

(Jim just asked me why I was so excited, and I told him you'd just sent the final set of instructions, and he said, "wow, she's really hooking you up, huh?" and I said, "indeed.")"

I couldn't resist replying:

"It's all in the interest of expanding our cult following. You'll recall I warned you about that at the beginning. It starts innocently enough (you're browsing the yarn shop, contemplating another garter stitch scarf, carelessly browsing the pattern books) and the next thing you know, you're looking into buying a spinning wheel and booking tickets for knitting retreats...

We're worse than Trekkies.

When my buddy broke her arm last year, she blogged about it and my first reaction was "Oh my god, how will she knit?". I didn't leave that as a comment, though - I thought it might sound kind of callous, considering she had a 2-month old baby and a 4-year old to look after and she couldn't paint (she's an illustrator). She probably had more important things to think about than knitting. I went over to her place a week later and asked her how she was coping and she said "Well, it's tricky. I can't pick up the baby and I can't cook and I feel helpless and I can't work, but I'm dealing with that, because PRAISE BE TO GOD I can still knit!". Turns out, it was one of the first things she tested out when she got home with the cast.

Brainwashed, all of us. Welcome to the club (I can safely say that you are in the club, because you are sitting at home on a Friday night, checking your e-mail for a knitting tutorial and you exclaimed about its arrival loud enough to attract the attention of your husband --- you're hooked, it's a done deal)."

Her confession came a little later:

"Oooh yes, you've got me. I did just spend two hours knitting on a Friday night, and it was really fun and there is nothing I would have rather been doing. Now my hand is cramped and my eyes are tired, so I better go to sleep before I start making mistakes.

Awesome story about your friend. That cracked me up. I'd write something funny or clever myself, but I'm too tired.

Thanks again for recruiting me into your cult."

That's knitting, for you. The yarn wraps you around its little finger and you can help but love the abuse.